The U.S. Department of the Interior will offer offshore Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida for oil and gas exploration and development //snipp// This will be the largest such lease sale in the country's history, it will include almost 77 million acres of federal waters in the Gulf. The lease sale will be live streamed online from New Orleans.

PARKER COUNTY - It's been a tumultuous 24 hours for a young Chihuahua mix named Pumpkin. "She would like to take a nap," said Parker County Animal Control Supervisor Karen Kessler, whose arms Pumpkin was nuzzling into. The tiny pup was found Thursday, roaming a lot in rural Weatherford. A woman named Vanessa was the one who discovered her. "It was very skittish at first," Vanessa said of the dog. "It didn't want [to go] anywhere near me." Vanessa's family has had trouble with people illegally dumping on their property, so they set up game cameras. She went to check...

The security guard wounded in a 2015 ISIS-inspired terrorist attack at the "Draw Muhammad" event in Garland, Texas, is suing the FBI, and argues the bureau is liable for his damages because an agent "solicited, encouraged, directed and aided members of ISIS in planning and carrying out the May 3 attack," according to court documents filed Monday.

The Houston school district is under fire after a student without legal status ended up in immigration detention following his arrest by a school police officer for an altercation with a female student. A lawyer for Dennis Rivera Sarmiento, 19, said his client was bullied by the 15-year-old girl and retaliated only after she taunted him with racial slurs, threw a full bottle of Gatorade at him and confronted him. "He's very fearful of being deported to Honduras," said Rivera's attorney, Brandon Roché. On Wednesday, students at Stephen F. Austin High School in Houston staged a lunch hour walkout to...

Federal immigration agents are escalating efforts to crack down on businesses hiring undocumented workers. New data released Friday morning shows Immigration and Customs Enforcement visited 122 businesses over the past five days, mostly in Southern California. Mike Poindexter is CEO of his family business the Poindexter Nut Company near Fresno, California. He says most Americans don't want these labor-intensive jobs. "We hire people all the time. They show up, they work two days and they leave," Poindexter said. His company is now being audited by ICE. "We've had somewhere between 5 to 10 percent of our workforce quit voluntarily just...

President Trump on Wednesday called on lawmakers to oppose a series of bipartisan efforts to address immigration and resolve the fate of the so-called “Dreamers,” demanding fealty to his hard-line approach even as more moderate senators converged on a narrower approach. Senators in both parties are racing against a self-imposed, end-of-the-week deadline to write legislation that could win broad support by increasing border security while at the same time offering a path to citizenship for immigrants brought to the United States as children. Members of a bipartisan group calling itself the Common Sense Coalition said they have reached a deal...

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – Missing since Friday, former Dallas Cowboys running back Lincoln Coleman was found safe on Tuesday morning, according to Dallas Police. Investigators were worried about his diminished mental capacity and his need for medical help. Coleman’s agent and friend of 15 years, Christopher Randolph, said Coleman had parked his car at a church three blocks from his house. He said Coleman could not figure out where he left his car or how to get home. Randolph said on Tuesday at about 4 a.m., Coleman returned home but was confused about what happened. “We were worried about him freezing....

DALLAS - If you can’t win big, go small. That’s the strategy gaining momentum among criminal justice reformers in the age of Trump, as the federal government hardens its approach to law enforcement. Instead of pouring money and energy into squeezing change out of Washington, national civil rights organizations are teaming with local groups to push their agendas in county-level district attorney races, where a few thousand votes can determine who asserts the most influence over the local justice system. Picking their targets carefully, and crunching election data to influence pivotal voter blocs - and benefiting from the largesse of...

Imagine going to sleep and waking up sounding British. It's a real thing, and it happened to a Valley woman who has never even left the country. "Everybody only sees or hears Mary Poppins," said Michelle Myers, a mom of seven who lives in Buckeye. Myers is a former Texas beauty queen who has never even left the United States. Three times in the past seven years, Myers has gone to sleep with blinding headaches only to wake up with a different accent. The first time it was Irish. The second time was Australian. Both incidents lasted about a week....

Myers says she has been diagnosed with Foreign Accent Syndrome. The disorder typically occurs after strokes or traumatic brain injuries damage the language center of a person's brain — to the degree that their native language sounds like it is tinged with a foreign accent, according to the Center for Communication Disorders at the University of Texas at Dallas.

"The parents of special needs children are especially vulnerable to state intervention."This mom's story in The Washington Post will kick anyone in the gut. Texas writer May Cobb was out for a day with her mom, her husband, and their autistic 5-year-old who, miraculously, was doing great. By great, Cobb explained, she meant he had not had a single meltdown during the hour they were at a park and on the boardwalk near Lady Bird Lake in Austin. He hadn't stripped off all his clothes, and he wasn't banging his head over and over again. Sure, his hair was messy—his...

The Austin Justice Coalition is asking community members to donate copies from a specific list of fiction and nonfiction titles to the Carver Branch of the library system. The city came up with the list of 126 works at the group’s request, and the donations will expand Carver’s collection. “For me, even if we get two books, it’s better than nothing,” said Ishia Lynette, AJC’s social media and community service director. She’s organizing the Black Literature Matters donation event Monday as part of the organization’s Black Unity Week. Carver already has a piece of its collection dedicated to African American...

Years after the former rodeo roper turned country singer lost his voice, LarryCallies stumbled into his past. Records from plantation days revealed connections between his slave ancestors and a white east Texas minister who had kids with slaves, uncovering hidden history became his passion.Larry Callies owns history with a collection of boots, buckles, stirrups, photos and more on display at the Black Cowboy Museum in Rosenberg. “I just don’t like to lose my heritage,” he said. “I don’t like to lose things that we used to have. I brought a lot of stuff from me just picking stuff up.” Years...

Texas Rep. Louis Gohmert appeared on Judge Jeanine Pirro’s show on Fox News to discuss the fallout of the FISA memos, which brought to light potential abuse of government surveillance to spy on the Trump campaign. “You and I believe in due process,” Gohmert said. “We would never send somebody to jail without due process, but one thing — and this is a good segue, I think — when a lawyer provides something to the court that is not true, and especially to a FISA secret court where there is nobody there for the other side. The other said —...

With McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna desperately dumping Twin Peaks biker cases right and left in recent days, the astonished taxpayer must demand honesty of himself if not of Reyna: Does anyone really believe Reyna has suddenly been struck by an epiphany that has stubbornly eluded him in the three years since the May 17, 2015, biker shootout that left nine dead and 20 wounded? -this epiphany has to do with political odds, not any interest in justice. And it must have been some epiphany. Reyna is credited with hijacking a Waco police murder investigation in 2015 and throwing...

An Austin mother is upset that Four Points Middle School sent her daughter home this week with an assignment to “Draw a picture of yourself as a slave…” “This is a learning tool that is not acceptable under any circumstances,” stated Tonya Jennings. The assignment is in reference to discussions of “slave life in Texas in the 1850’s”, according to a picture of the assignment sent to CBS Austin by Jennings. Upon learning of the assignment, Jennings husband went to the school Friday to discuss the issue with administrators. A Leander ISD spokesperson sent a statement to CBS Austin Saturday...

Heather Holland, a second-grade teacher at Ikard Elementary School with the Weatherford Independent School District died over the weekend, the Weatherford Democrat reports. Holland got sick about a week ago and took medication, but delayed picking up the prescription due to the $116 copay, according to the newspaper. By Friday night, Holland's condition worsened and she was taken to the hospital. Her husband Frank Holland told the Weatherford Democrat that she died Sunday morning. "She loved helping people, helping the kids, and the kids loved her," Holland's husband told the Weatherford Democrat. Charlotte LaGrone, a spokeswoman for Weatherford ISD, told...

Bush is overseeing a $450 million plan to redevelop and improve the site, featuring things like a new museum housed in nearby state-owned buildings and additional historic programming. A mix of public money and private donations is meant to cover the cost. But the report obtained by the newspaper, dated Sept. 8, notes that "the current situation obscures the control of the funds. It also has created a situation where GLO is responsible for state laws over the use of funds, but with limited control since the expenditures are prior to approval by the GLO." GLO spokeswoman Brittany Eck said...

WASHINGTON — Sen. Ted Cruz signaled a bruising fight Thursday if the White House pushes ahead with the nominee for a coveted Caribbean diplomatic post who spread unfounded conspiracy theories about him during the 2016 campaign. As an ardent cheerleader for Donald Trump, beauty supply executive Leandro Rizzuto Jr. used Twitter to promote an unsubstantiated allegation that Cruz cheated on his wife, and other claims that Heidi Cruz herself was part of a cabal seeking to unite North America under one government. "I don't know the fellow. He seems to have unusual views," Cruz said Thursday through an aide. "I...

The motions for dismissal approved by 54th Criminal District Judge Matt Johnson offer defendants no possible avenue for expunction of their record, nor does the language of the order hold any hope to recover damages in a civil rights case. Notice that the reason ticked off in the form is “other,” and adds the missive, and for cause would show the Court the following: While probable cause for the Defendant’s arrest and prosecution remains, based on continued investigation, the State is exercising its prosecutorial discretion in dismissing this matter in order to focus its efforts and resources on co-defendants with...